"It was like a scene from Hell," Di Bacco said.
"There was complete disarray. The Germans set up
beach obstacles and land mines...the mortar fire was
terrific. The saturation firing was incessant."

Di Bacco, a native of Tucker County, was a second
year student at St. Charles College outside Baltimore
when he made himself available for the draft in 1942.
By the fall of 1943, he was on his way to Wales to
participate in the Allied invasion of Europe.

After nine months in Wales, he said he and his buddies
were ready to go in June of '44.

"I had some trepidation about it, but we all felt like
we owned the world," he said. "We were anxious to
get started, because we all wanted to get home."

Di Bacco was a medic with a corps of First Army
engineers. There was plenty of wounded waiting for
him when he made the Normandy shore.

The Allies were pinned down along the beach area
until nightfall, which made Di Bacco's job almost
impossible.

"Our movement was almost completely lateral,"
Di Bacco said. "The dunes on the beach gave us some
protection, but I was definitely afraid I wouldn't leave
the beach.

"We had a lot of wounded on litters down by the
water. When high tide came in later in the evening,
some of them were washed out into the water and
drowned."

As midnight approached near the end of that first
horrible day, the Allies had made enough headway
inland to move the remaining wounded up to a safe
distance from the shore.

Di Bacco remained in France for the duration of the
war. After the liberation of Paris later that fall, he was
posted there. He worked in the Medical Services
School Center in Paris training doctors and nurses for
service in the Pacific.

Vincent was just one of three Di Bacco boys overseas
during that pivotal year of 1944. His brother
Albert Di Bacco was in Europe at the same time.
Albert Di Bacco participated in the North African and
Italian campaigns as a medic. Albert Di Bacco was
eventually posted to a hospital in southern France, but
the two never saw each other.

Their brother Abe Di Bacco was part of the Allied
invasion force into North Africa in November 1942.

He was a seaman aboard the U.S.S. George
Clymer, a troop transport ship that supplied men and
materials to Allied effort in French Morocco.

Abe Di Bacco's ship was the frequent target of
German shore batteries in Casablanca. When the
Clymer went to the Pacific Theatre in 1943 to aid the
fight against the Japanese, Abe Di Bacco weathered
fire from Japanese shore batteries as well.

He helped supply troops and ships fighting the
Japanese in the Pacific, including the PT 109 - commanded by young
Navy lieutenant named John F.
Kennedy.

Vincent and Albert
Di Bacco saw the war
through to the close
of the European conflict
in May 1945.

Abe Di Bacco came
home after the
Japanese surrender in
August of the same
year. All three
returned to West
Virginia. Vincent and
Albert Di Bacco
returned to family
business in Tucker
County, while Abe Di
Bacco eventually ran
the West Virginia
state workers compensation
office here
in Martinsburg.

From Hedgesville to
Utah Beach

Cronon McCarty
landed at Utah Beach
on the northern part
of the Normandy
peninsula on June 8.
When he walked onto
the Normandy shore,
he was 19-year-old
boy from Hedgesville
who had never been
away from home.

Pvt. 1st Class
Cronon McCarty was
scared.

"It wasn't pleasant
at all," McCarty said.
"It seemed like we
fought everyday. I'll
never forget those
screaming shells and bullets whizzing
past my head. I was scared
all the time.

"They told us
Utah was the most
undefended beach by
the Germans, but it
was defended enough
for me. I was there a
little over a month
and it seemed like 10
years."

McCarty was wounded in both legs during a mortar
attack near Periers in southern Normandy on July 22,
but his injuries aren't what haunt him.

"The guy next to me had a fragment go in his chest her[e], said
McCarty pointing to the middle of his sternum, "and it went out his back and
left a hole all the way through.

"The medics were right there to treat me and him.
They took the bandages and kept wrapping them around
him, but the blood kept soaking right through.

"He kept yelling 'Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!'...I'll never forget
that as long as I live," McCarty said.

As bleak and terrifying as the experience was for McCarty, he never
doubted the Allies' chances.

"I don't think any of us ever thought we were going to lose," McCarty said. "It just
never entered my mind that we wouldn't win."

McCarty made the front page of The Journal on Aug. 7, 1944, when the Army notified
his parents of his wounds. He still has a copy of that.

McCarty was transported back to an Allied hospital in
Bristol, England, aboard a C-47 transport plane. It was his first flight.

McCarty was in recovery and rehabilitation for six months, before returning to limited
administrative duties in France. He later married a British girl and brought her home to
Hedgesville, where they raised a son and a daughter. He worked for the Veterans Administration
for 30 years before retiring in the late 70's.

McCarty is returning to Normandy this week, his first trip back since the end of World War II.
His reasons is simple.

"I've always wanted to go back, but never could afford it before now," he said. "I'm 69 years old
now and I figure if I don't do it now, I might never get to."